Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a couple questions for the Minister of MACA regarding the freezing of the issuing of leases out in the area of Banting and Walsh lakes. This is an issue that the Minister is quite familiar with. He had met with several members of Yellowknife to hear the concerns of our constituents about squatters out there causing problems with people with legitimate leases who have applied for them properly, waited for the approval process, and then built their recreational properties. The freezing of any potential lease applications I think is a good step. I know several Members had brought that concern to the Minister and at the time the department wasn’t interested. I’m certainly glad to see that they are following that certain request to help develop a plan out there for recreation saturation, et cetera. At the time several people, there were a few incidents of squatters out there and I thought the government’s policy was that if you had a squatter out there who was not an approved lease, I think is the proper term, they had to remove their cabin or establishment and then apply. But as I understood it, they were either waived or told to just apply and don’t worry about removing your temporary recreational property. In the freezing process of issuing leases, has the Minister caused the squatters to go back, remove their recreational camp or cabin, and have them apply for the process fairly like everyone else did and then build after that?
The honourable Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There was an opportunity for those who were out there squatting to legitimize their leases. That was the Interim Trespass Enforcement Strategy. But we’ve withdrawn that now and we are taking measures to deal with the squatters out on Commissioner’s land.
If I heard the Minister correctly, he’s suggesting that the government is enforcing that the squatters now remove their recreational facility, if I may define it -- I don’t know what they put out there -- and had them go through the normal channels like everyone else. Is that the case? Because that is the concern from constituents in Yellowknife Centre who have cabins out there.
They were given an opportunity to legitimize their leases. We had a lot of people come forward and do that. The ones that didn’t, we are taking action now to deal with them. These are folks that don’t have the land tenure and were just putting their buildings anywhere out there. We are taking steps to deal with that. This is part of the new recreation policy framework that we’re working on that should take steps to address all these issues.
It sounds like good news. I just wanted to be clear on the squatter problem. Does the department have a zero tolerance policy on the squatter problem? So in other words, if someone builds a cabin out there, the stance from the department is consistent and clear, which is that person or family has to remove that cabin then apply and then see where the application goes at that time. Or do they just let it sit there and say, apply, we’ll figure it out and if your application approves, we’ll leave you alone?
Our primary goal here is to have all the folks who are considering putting buildings out there to have land tenure and then that would not be an issue. Those that do not have land tenure we are taking steps to address that and deal with the situation.
Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
I appreciate the answer not to my question, but it was an interesting answer which speaks to the long-term problem. I’m glad we heard that that’s the long-term focus. But the question really comes down to is there a zero tolerance policy that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs adheres to, which is if someone’s a squatter, they have to remove their cabin or whatever it may be and then they must apply in that process.
We do deal with those out there that do not have the proper land tenure for occupation on Commissioner’s land and we’ll take the steps necessary. If it means having them remove their buildings, then I think that’s been done before. We are taking steps now to deal with those without proper land tenure.
The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
